Colorants that generally adhere to the surface of substrates, e.g. paper or plastic, with little or no penetration into the substrates are used in various printing processes and presses. Each area on the final output, i.e. the printed substrate, may include clusters of colorant dots that cover a percentage of the area. The rest of the area may remain clear, i.e. it may not be covered by colorant. The number of dots per cluster attributes to the resolution of the printed image. The optical density of the image may be controlled by controlling the percentage the dots occupy on the specific area. A 100% occupation implies a cluster where the dots occupy the space of the entire area, i.e. there remains no clear area. For the same colorant, a lower percentage occupation results in lower optical density compared to a higher percentage occupation that results in higher optical density.